Two key recommendations for local media stood out at the 2019 Borrell & Associates Local Online Advertising Conference (LOAC):
1. Automate the buying process
2. Bundle different ad types in the sale
Automate Advertising Buys
The most persuasive advocate of automating the advertising buy was Philip Rather, head of local at Facebook. “By 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be handled without a human,” he said. He shared some of the new ways Facebook is making it easier for local business to buy directly as well as for media companies to bundle Facebook and Instagram with traditional media to increase results.
Along with simple, automated buying, SMB owners tend to buy traditional media bundled with digital media, according to Corey Elliott, VP of Research, and Gordon Borrell, President of Borrell & Associates.
They revealed new data following the trends we saw in 2018 showing SMBs preference for bundling ad types is just as strong as their preference for a simpler, automated buying process. 90% of the local businesses surveyed are now buying both digital and traditional media packaged together. This number has increased significantly over prior years to become the new given for businesses surveyed, the majority of whom were originally traditional media purchasers.
Bundled Advertising
So if small and medium-sized businesses are buying digital with traditional media like print and broadcast, which types of digital advertising should be in the ad bundle packages? Elliott noted that local businesses show a massive preference for social media and video advertising, followed by search and online display ads.
Among the social media players Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google, the big winner is Facebook in total usage – by more than double of any of the other social media.
Elliott also noted, however, that the survey shows SMBs also think Facebook’s effectiveness is on the decline. As SMBs shift budgets, there may be an opportunity to package Instagram and other social media into the buy.
Try Something New
A final observation is that small businesses are switching budgets around, shaking things up and trying new things. Almost half of them will take chances on purchasing new types of marketing and putting video and Instagram back in the running for new dollars.
Finally, the data shows that in spite of their willingness to try new things, small businesses are finding digital advertising anything but easy.
As the leader in self-serve advertising software, iPublish Media Solutions embraces these trends and are positioned to help our media partners provide automated bundled solutions that make it easy for SMBs to buy multi-media advertising campaigns that include all the trending types of ads like Instagram and video.
We can show you how to add Facebook, video, and Instagram to your core product in simple packages with an automated process that can be used by your inside sales teams, or fully automated for SMB owners who prefer “Do It Yourself.”
Contact us for a demo to show how to add Facebook and Instagram to print and online buys, in a single automated workflow.
